The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1887-09-14

The reference to Cornell University
proves nothing in oar case, and in othel
respects is a very unfortunate one fol
"D." to invoke. II TIE fist piace
Cornell University Owls its foundation
originally to the Act Of Congress OF 1867
donating public lands to establish and
maintain agricultural and mechanical
colleges. U2der this Act the State oj
New York got nine hundred and ninety
thousand (990,0GG) acres in land scrip.
This all went to Cornell. So we see,
This magnificent Institution has been re-
garded as an agricultural and mechanl.
cal college from its origin. To this
splendid national donation Mr.. Cornell
added i've hundred thousand dollars and
over two hundred acres OF la1d, With
buildings, for the use Of the agricultural
department.
While the leading idea OF the national
donation was to encourage the study OF
agriculture and the mechanic arss, the
idea of Mr.. Cornell was to found IA IL
stitutiou where everything could be
taught that any one would be likely to
desire to learn. TO carry out this idea
his friend and active coworker, Andrew
D. White, was sent abroad to study
foreign institutions of learning, especial
" those splendid institutions, the Ger
man polytechnic schools. / know
whereof speak, because I had occasion
then to meet Prof. White for the frst
time, and to show him through and
furnish him the documents relative TO
the organization of one of tue very best
of these schools. The result has been,
perhaps, the most complete university
in the strict sense Of the term that tie
country contains.
But how has the agricultural depart
ment, the very 'tleading object for
which Cornell was founded, hourished?
According to the catalogue Of 1861,
out of S29 students there were only 81
students of agriculture. The senior class
of 81 had onl Y one studying agriculture;
the junior OF 145, only 7; the sophomore
of ITS, only 8; the freshman of 323, only
Is; and then special students, making
out the 81. We see then, in an institu-
ton like Cornell, founded originally
mainly as an agricultural college, with
an endowment such as few other insti-
tutions in the land possess, and the pet
of the great State of New York, how the
agricultural department fails to accom-
plish the purpose Tor which It was
(! founded.
I believe we would find approximately
The same state OF things with al the ag-i-
CULTURAL annexes IL the country. 1t IS
/; only the agricultural colleges that ere
separate and apart from other institu-
tions, such as in Michigan, in Kansas,
ard more recently il Mississippi, that
we ind properly Fulfilling the purposes
for which they were founded. Can We,
then, in South Carolina, reasonably hope
to change this state Of facts, and make q
| dourishirg agricultural annex in con
nection with the State University? Can
we hope to succeed where Cornell has
failed?
3D." undertakes to refute Mr.
Thomass estimate Of the proportion Of
the State taxes paid by the farmers.
I presume We have no exact data,
! either in the comptroller generals Office
or elsewhere, to show the exact amount
OF the burden of taxation borne by the
farmers or any other one class, and it is,
perhaps, well that We should not have.
But would remark, in the first place,
that the $766,3l2 State taxes does not by
any means represent the entire tax paid
by the people OF the State. They have
in addition to pay county, township and
municipal taxes, and here they get 20
assistance from railroads or phosphate
royalties. These I presume were in
cluded in Mr.. Thomas's estimate. In
the next place, insist that the farmers
pay indirectly very considerable pro-
portion both of the railroad tax and the
phosphate royalty. I do not know to
what extent the price Of land phosphates,
used chiefly by our farmers: may be
affected by tie royalty On water phos-
pilates, which, l believe, s--e mostly
Shipped outside the State.
But it will be remembered that not
very lons since, when Capt. Tillman
proposed to increase this royalty to pro-
cure fund to establish the agricultural
college, Z great outcry was made by
these same opponents of the college on
the ground that it would be an addition
al burden on the farmer. But now it
seems to suit them to forget this, and
pretend that this royalty is not paid by
the farmer. As to the railroad tax I'D. %
is entirely too well informed as to tie
burden borne by our people by tariff
taxation, as he has recently shown by his
excellent articles written elsewhere, rot
to know that this railroad tax comes in
directly out OF the pockets Of those who
use the railroads. The farmers whose
produce is carried to market by rail, and
whose supplies are brought back to them
by rail, assist in paying this tax.
I insist then that the figures cited by
cd" from the comptroller generals re-
port do not give even an approximate
idea OF the bu1den of taxation that our
farmers have to bear; and that Mr..
Thomas is likely, upon the whole, nearer
correct than he is.
But "D." admits that .'South Carolina
has always been, and most probably
always will be, an agricultural State, so
tnat her chief wealth will be derived di-
rectly from the soil by the toll and sweat
Of q large proportion OF her people.
Should we not then provide for the edu-
cation and Improvement of this "iarge
proportion of our people" viii no: say
instead OF, but as well as for the ''gener-
al literary, scientific and polite culture
OF the few who intend to be preachers,
doctors and lawyers? l do not object,
as CD" would have your readers be-
leve, to the literary, scientific and polite
culture CT all who have the means of
obtaining it, be lie farmers son or law